A regional press journalist has named and shamed the licensed premises in a city which have been caught selling alcohol to underage youngsters, after a four-month Freedom of Information battle.

Ed Walker, an online communities editor with Media Wales, first asked South Wales Police in May for information relating to test purchases made by the force.

The police provided some information but when Ed asked for the names of the Cardiff premises who had sold alcohol to those under 18, he was told it was not in the public interest because of ongoing investigations.

But he appealed against this decision, saying it was in the public interest for people to know which premises had made underage sales – leading to the police finally releasing the information this month.

In Ed’s story, which was published in the South Wales Echo and Media Wales’ community website YourCardiff, he reports seven licensed premises in Cardiff were caught selling alcohol to under-age customers this year.

He said he had decided to submit the FoI request after attending a lot of community meetings where concerns were raised about nuisance youths, which mainly seemed to be linked to alcohol.

Ed said: “There are forces in the country that actively do a name and shame policy but South Wales Police doesn’t seem to promote that.

“It was a bit of a surprise that I didn’t get told at first. The reason they came back with is fair enough I suppose but I think the public interest outweighed that.”

He appealed against the decision to the police, giving reasons why it was important for the names to be made public and quoting the force’s own priorities in tackling anti-social behaviour.

Ed’s progress in accessing the information was charted through whatdotheyknow.com.